SK Broadband Breaks 1Gbps Gfast Barrier with Sckipio Solution

RAMAT GAN, ISREAL — Sckipio Technologies and ISP SK Broadband announced the first commercial deployment of Gfast 212MHz gigabit internet in Asia. SK Broadband deployed the new Gfast gigabit service in Seoul and Seongnam, South Korea.

“SK Broadband is determined to provide gigabit internet to all, but not all South Korean apartments can be easily wired with fiber all the way to the apartment,” said the manager in charge of access network from SK Broadband. “That’s why we chose Sckipio’s Gfast. It’s the best way to extend gigabit fiber performance to these apartments over existing twisted pair telephone wires.”

Combining Fiber and Cooper
SK Broadband has a long history of being first to market with the most advanced access technologies at that time, such as VDSL, GPON, XGSPON and now Gfast. SK Broadband achieved remarkable broadband speeds by using a practical approach of combining fiber and copper. Most South Korean apartment buildings already have fiber to the basement. Yet, often these are older, brownfield buildings, making it impractical to bring fiber all the way to the apartment. That is the reason why only 34 percent of South Korean apartments have fiber all the way to the apartment while the remaining 66 percent are needing another approach.

That is where Gfast comes in. Gfast adds true gigabit connections to each unit in the building by using the existing twisted pair CAT3 wiring. This ensures fiber-like performance, but at a fraction of the time, hassle and cost.

Servicing High-Rise, High Density Apartments
According to the Korean Statistical Information Service, over half of the residents of Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province live in high-rise apartments with a high density of apartments. To reach all these residents with gigabit speeds required new Gfast solutions that can support both the latest 212MHz technology and that can implement vectoring (cross talk cancellation technique) over a large count of lines simultaneously. South Korean network infrastructure equipment maker HFR worked with Sckipio to provide SK Broadband solutions that support up to 96 gigabit subscribers. HFR’s distribution point unit (DPU) serves 24 subscribers in a single DPU and adds cross-DPU vectoring up to 96 subscribers sharing the same copper binder. Only Sckipio’s Gfast supports 96 concurrent gigabit subscribers.

“By partnering with SK Broadband and HFR, we are accelerating South Korea’s lead in broadband speeds,” said David Baum, Sckipio CEO. This deployment demonstrates the clear use case for Gfast technology to deliver gigabit service to large apartment environments without needing to install fiber connections to each apartment.”

“Gigabit speeds have become the new marketing standard for operators around the world,” said Julie Kunstler, principal analyst at Ovum. “Given South Korea’s advanced access infrastructure and competition for broadband subscribers, it follows that SK Broadband is embracing Gfast.”